


Fool Me Once

by missnoona



Category: K-pop, Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Attempted Seduction, Bad Boy AU, Clubbing, Drinking, F/M, Oneshot, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-26 15:09:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17748203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missnoona/pseuds/missnoona
Summary: Jooheon seems like a typical bad boy who hangs around the wrong crowd, but after a chance meeting, he might be ready to change his ways.





	Fool Me Once

When it came to the neighborhood I grew up in and the people I knew, you’d never guess what a square I was. You’d think I’d fall into line with everyone else, but I’d gone the opposite; studious, always trying to keep to the straight and narrow and follow all the rules, to the point where even the thought of going against the grain made me itch.

And yet, I knew deep down there was a side of me that yearned to be free, to spend maybe one day being reckless and not caring. It played out in my fantasies often, and I was drawn to film and TV shows about rebels who only lived to fill their own needs.

I surrounded myself with people who teetered this edge. Not completely out of control, but risk takers and partiers and spontaneous types. I lived vicariously through them, but denied every invitation to participate in their wildness, no matter how hard they tried to get me to tag along. I had too many people I would be letting down if I did anything as selfish.

This night, they were at it again, a small gaggle of girlfriends who begged and pleaded with me to go out with them.

“I have a lot of work” I said, casting my eyes toward the pile of paperwork by my desk.

“It’s Friday!” one of them near-shouted in disbelief. “It can wait”

“I don’t know”

More begging and tugging on my arms and making puppy faces.

“We’ll have you home by midnight”

“Yeah, we promise”

“Just a couple drinks”

“It’s not a big deal”

It really couldn’t hurt, a voice in the back of my mind said. A couple drinks at a bar downtown, no big deal.

“Fine”

They squealed in unison and dragged me away to the bathroom to primp and prepare. I didn’t usually wear make-up, and my hair was left down or maybe in a simple ponytail. I had too much to worry about that didn’t include my appearance, though it was always a secret desire of mine.

They poked and prodded me with pens and hair curlers and funny pinchy things on my eyes. I pulled and fought, not meaning to be difficult but everything they did hurt or just felt way too uncomfortable to stand.

“You do this every day?” I asked with skepticism, and they laughed at me.

We click-clacked our way into the bar, dark and smoky, a jukebox in the corner that was way too loud, but a group on a dance floor who disagreed. I’d been out before, of course, but it had been awhile and I felt like slinking deep into a corner and hiding for the rest of the night.

They ordered shots and placed one into my hand without warning, and I tossed it back with them, grimacing. I took in the claustrophobic atmosphere with shifting eyes, I was glad for the way my friends surrounded me in a tight circle, shielding me from wandering eyes.

“What about him?” One asked, pointing toward a guy, and they all disagreed. I realized I didn’t have any idea what they were talking about and my ears perked up. What about him, for what?

“Or him?” the friend pointed to someone else, and the girl next to her crinkled her nose, shaking her head.

“Hey, what are-“I started to say, attempting to speak over the loud music, but I was cut off by my friend gasping.

“Look.At.Him”

By the sound of her voice, all our heads turned at the same time toward the edges of the floor, near the music. Two guys stood together, but one certainly stood out amongst any of them. Dark hair pushed back, a piercing stare, and a relaxed stance. He didn’t smile, just surveyed the room with steady intent. He must’ve felt all our eyes on him, because his hard gaze drifted in our direction, and the corner of his mouth tugged into a smirk as he gave a little wave. We all looked away with a squeak.

“Jesus” One of them breathed and the others giggled.

I let my eyes go back to him over my friend’s shoulders as they laughed and discussed something. He was certainly interesting looking, cute, but not someone I would approach anywhere else. I couldn’t explain it, but he looked like trouble.

“He’s definitely the one then” I caught the tail-end of the conversation, and before I could ask, I felt a friend from behind pushing me.

“Hey!” I called, looking back as my feet staggered forward at the insistence.

“You’re going to talk to him” She said into my ear and my eyes went wide. I turned around and stopped.

“Oh no I’m not” I said defiantly. “Why would I go talk to him?”

“Because he’s cute and we’re out on a Friday night and you need some excitement in your life”

“I really don’t” I said, shaking my head. I realized all the while they’d been plotting on trying to get me with someone. It wasn’t like I needed help in that area, I could get a boyfriend if I tried, I just didn’t bother trying very often. It wasn’t a top priority in my life right now, and I definitely wasn’t into flings, especially with boys in bars.

She grabbed my elbows and forcibly turned me around. I expected to be made to move forward again, but when I turned I came face to face with the guy they’d been talking about, who had moved across the room and was now here in front of me. I swallowed hard.

“Hi” he said with a cheeky little grin and a pair of dimples that made me feel things in places. My tongue went dry.

“Hi” my friend spoke for me. She rambled off my name and said something about how they were taking me out tonight to loosen me up. I pressed my heel back on her foot and she hissed and glared at me, but turned back to our new friend with a painted on smile.

“I’m Jooheon” He said, ignoring her and extended a hand to me. I blinked up at him as I slid my hand into his and nodded. He looked…amused?

“Do you want a drink?” He asked as he motioned to the bar. I opened my mouth to speak but my friend did it for me.

“She’d love one”

He smiled and left for the bar, and I whipped around to face my friend with fire burning in my eyes.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“I’m being your wingman!” She said, trying to sound harmless.

“Well stop it” I snapped at her, and she rolled her eyes.

“He’s totally into you, just go with it”

This entire exchange was foreign to me. Go with what? What goal were we trying to achieve here? Because the only one I could think of ended with us hooking up and that was not what I had in mind for tonight, with absolutely anyone.

As if she’d read my thoughts, she launched into fast-paced, condensed explanation.

“It’s just fun to flirt sometimes. You don’t have to do anything, just enjoy the attention.”

I thought that was absurd. I didn’t need validation, and I was way too awkward to flirt with a stranger, so the entire ordeal would probably just end up being embarrassing for us both.

He came back with a drink, handing it off to me and I thanked him as a mumble into the glass. I took a way bigger drink then I’d intended and fought off the urge to gag. It was strong, whatever it was, but it made me feel warm all through my head and ears and maybe that’s what I needed? I took another big drink.

He asked me questions that I only heard half of most of the time, and answered them to the best of my ability, one arm across my chest while the other cradled the drink near my mouth. I took big gulps in-between sentences and I started to feel lighter on my feet and numb in my head. To be honest, it felt quite nice and definitely suppressed majority of my anxiety and discomfort. I started to care less and less about everyone around me, and more and more about the cute boy with the pretty face who seemed to like the sound of my voice. Before I knew it, I was swaying toward him and smiling back. Was this flirting?

“I don’t usually hang around one girl all night” he said and I thought about calling him a douchebag to his face, in jest of course, but I somehow managed to keep that to myself, in spite of how easily all my other thoughts came out thanks to the booze. Instead, I loudly laughed.

“Should I feel special?” I asked, my tone mocking.

He was pleasant to talk to, but clearly he thought a lot of himself and seemed to be putting on airs, like he had some kind of reputation around here. Drunk-me clearly did not give a shit.

I felt him move close to me, lean into me, and I could smell his distinct mixture of cologne and cigarette smoke as he came near my ear, as if it were suddenly too loud, but his voice only lowered the closer he got to me.

“I can make you feel special”

A shiver ran down my spine, and I tried my best to conceal it. His voice gave me a tingly sensation at the back of my neck, and my lost inhibitions made all kinds of thoughts run through my mind.

I forced out another laugh, and hoped it wasn’t obvious.

As he pulled back, his hand curled around my drink, brushing my fingers as he did so. He placed it down on the bar behind me, then took me by the wrist and tugged.

“Dance with me”

I let myself be taken, though I could feel some of that old unease welling up in me as we approached the floor. My only saving grace is that it was mostly dark, and cramped enough that we could slip into the fray of it and not be conspicuous. It was that time of the night when people were enjoying themselves too much to care what everyone else was doing.

I lost him for a moment once we were engulfed in the floor, but I felt him a moment later behind me, a hand on my hip, his chest at my back. The beat was a pounding bass with a languid, hypnotic melody that made us both sway together, as if propelled by the vibrations. My brain was fuzzy, but I didn’t need to do much thinking right now, and surrendered myself to simply feeling. I moved with him like second nature, like our energies intertwined and I didn’t know where he began and I ended.

I felt his head at the side of mine, nuzzling my hair and ghosting his lips at the shelf of my ear, and I wondered for a moment if I was really here, doing this. This was not me, this was not the kind of things that I did, but oh, it felt good.

He pulled at my hip and I twirled around, my hands finding their way around his neck, and we were kissing, the sting of alcohol exchanged on our tongues and he tasted sweet and I think I felt drunker the longer I kissed him. He didn’t feel like a stranger, and my intoxicated mind didn’t bother bringing it up. I smiled against his mouth as he stroked my sides. I almost forgot we were standing in the middle of a dance floor.

I felt a pull behind me and ignored it at first, too consumed in my misbehavior, but the pulling was insistent and now I heard my name, urgent in my friend’s voice.

I barely got all the way around to face her before she started rambling at me a mile a minute, something about someone getting sick and us needing to leave immediately. I started to go with her, but Jooheon caught me by the waist and asked me to wait.

“Where are you going?” He asked with a heavy gaze, obviously not done with me yet and it made me tremble.

“I have to get out of here, my friends are leaving” I explained, motioning to the door.

“You do what your friends tell you?” he smirked at me, pulling me into him some more.

“Usually” I said, though only half-joking. I dug into my purse and produced a business card, slipping it into his hand.

He looked down at it, then back up at me with disappointment. Clearly he had something else in mind for tonight, and probably didn’t intend on ever seeing me again, but I felt compelled to give it to him anyway, even if sober me would regret it. I waved and went outside to find my friends.

We managed to get my sick friend home and in bed without incident, unless you count her puking outside of the cab on the way home, which was way better than if she’d puked INSIDE the cab.

My remaining friends nudged me and gushed about what a bad girl I’d been that night, and I blushed fiercely, shaking my head, telling them they were a bad influence. I thanked them for taking me out, and they hugged me tight before we separated.

Saturday morning I nursed a hang-over, and Sunday at brunch with the girls we recounted the night with laughs. Back at work Monday morning, I put that night aside for the most part. I did occasionally think of Jooheon, mostly enjoying the memory of finally letting loose for once in my life, but I can’t say I had any overwhelming desire for him to contact me. He was definitely not someone I’d want a relationship with in the light of day. What little I’d known of him told me he was arrogant, he hung out in bars, and he kissed strangers; probably on a regular basis.

I was walking toward my building with a co-worker, having our usual morning chat before clocking in. In the distance, someone was leaning against the wall next to the entrance to where my office lie and I blinked while trying to listen to my co-worker’s story. Yet, I kept getting distracted the closer we got. There was no way. It couldn’t be.

But it was. It was Jooheon leaning against the wall, looking around curiously like he was waiting for something. I thought about turning around and leaving, or sneaking into my office through the back alley, but I knew that was silly. I could handle this like an adult. Maybe it was a coincidence.

“I’ll see you inside” I told my co-worker as she went in ahead of me, and I stopped in front of Jooheon, who smiled as he pushed himself off the wall. It was then I noticed he held two cups of coffee.

“I hope you like macchiato” He said, as if this was totally normal.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.

“Trust me, I don’t usually do this” he laughed “I thought about just texting you, but I didn’t know what to say. I don’t typically text women afterward. Or at all, really”

I raised an eyebrow at him. He wasn’t doing a very good job of endearing himself to me.

He tried to offer me the coffee, and I hesitated. He gave me a look, dipping his chin and peering up at me with creased, childlike eyes. It took me off-guard; he looked a lot different in daylight, a little bit softer.

I took the coffee, but I made sure I looked reluctant while doing so.

“Thanks, I have to go to work now” I said in a monotone voice, moving toward the door.

“Hey, wait” He called “Do you want to have lunch with me later?” He asked.

“No thanks” I called back at him as I entered the office, not looking back to see his reaction. Maybe it was a little cruel to be so stand-offish, but this was just too weird for me. He was the last person I expected to see today, and I wasn’t ready to deal with whatever he had up his sleeve.

I tried to focus on work as best I could, putting the odd encounter out of my mind, as well as how handsome he looked leaning against the building. The thought of him waiting for me like that gave me butterflies, which then made me think about kissing him, and that only served to annoy me.

I got a text on my lunch break from an unknown number.

“Did you enjoy the coffee?” it asked with a smiley face, and I sighed. I thought about just ignoring it, but I didn’t want to be rude.

“It was good. Thank you” I kept it casual.

I thought he might leave it at that, but another text came through.

“You looked really pretty this morning. “

Even with my best efforts; I blushed hard and maybe even smiled a little bit. I had to put him in his place; I couldn’t let these tactics get to me.

“If you’re still trying to get into my pants, forget about it”

There. That would show him.

“I could see why you’d think that” He replied, to my surprise.

“But for once, that’s not the case”

For once, he said. I knew it. He was probably at that bar every weekend. Though, I did kind of admire his honestly.

“I’d like to take you out sometime”

I laughed out loud, then quickly closed my mouth and looked around the cafeteria housed in my building. No one had noticed.

“No offense, but you’re not my type”

It wasn’t a total lie. I might not know him that well, but what I did know told me we’d never be compatible on an emotional level.

“I was your type the other night”

I sank my teeth into my lower lip and felt hot all under my clothing. I wouldn’t let him gain the upper hand, though.

“The other night is exactly the reason you’re not my type. Look, I don’t usually do what I did that night. Like, ever. I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong idea about me”

There was a long pause between texts, and I thought I’d finally gotten through to him. I was about to pack up and head back to my desk when my phone beeped.

“Nah, I pegged you the moment I saw you. Pretty little wallflower forced out by friends, letting loose for one night. You’re not the first”

I furrowed my brow at my phone and was about to tell him off, but he texted again.

“But you had spunk, unlike the others. I could tell you were smart even when you were tipsy and you weren’t afraid to be real with me. “

Okay, he was winning me back a little bit.

“Just like that night was unlike you, this is unlike me. I gave you a chance, can you give me one?”

I closed my eyes for a moment, just holding my phone and thinking about what to do. Could one date really hurt?

“I’m off at 5” was all I texted back, knowing he’d get the hint.

“Great, I’ll see you then”

I had an impossible time focusing the rest of the day, wondering if I’d made a mistake in accepting. I knew it was just one measly date and if things went wrong I could back out, but I was more so afraid that things would go very right and I’d be left to decide what to do about that.

Just like he’d said, he met me outside my building after work, a little smile playing upon his mouth when he saw me and I wanted to be bothered but I wasn’t.

“What do people do on dates?” He asked me, and I thought he might be joking but he was dead serious. What was I getting myself into? The sad part was that I didn’t really know. I hadn’t been on a date in awhile.

“Eat, usually” I shrugged, and he knew exactly where to take me, he said.

It was a hole in the wall on a side street, dimly lit and shady from the outside with equally shady people inside, but I forgot all about any of it once I had my first bite of food.

“This is amazing” I said, a hand over my mouth as I chewed.

“I told you” He said.

“So you’ve never really taken a girl out before?”

“Not like this” he shook his head. “Maybe in high school or something, but I gave up the idea of dating pretty early on”

“Now you just prey on innocent girls in bars” I said, casting him a playful look and he grinned at me.

“Something like that” He said, then tilted his head at me “but you’re not innocent”

“Of course I am!” I defended myself, but he shook his head.

“You’ve got everyone fooled” He teased.

“I think you have, too” I countered, because he’d been nothing but incredibly sweet this entire night so far, despite trying to portray himself as the contrary. On the walk to the restaurant he made sure I was on the inside of the sidewalk, and placed a protective arm in front of me so I wouldn’t step into the street at the crosswalk. Inside the restaurant, he offered me a seat first, and waited for me to order. He may not realize it, but he was a gentleman.

“Maybe, but don’t tell anyone” He said with a laugh, and I detected he might even be feeling bashful, which turned his severe face into a beacon of cuteness.

He walked me home afterward, and we laughed most of the way there, but I couldn’t even recall exactly about what. We were just in a perpetual fit of giggles around each other, and we didn’t even need alcohol this time.

“I’m not so bad, right?” He asked me at my door, and I shrugged my shoulders.

“I guess you’re okay”

“Just okay?” He said in a softer voice, and I got all those jittery feelings like I’d had Friday night. It was like the timber in his voice just cut right through me.

“I’ll tell you how I feel on our next date” I said, and watched the smile dawn on him slowly. He leaned in, and I expected him to kiss my lips. After all, we’d already passed that base. Instead, though, he pecked me on the cheek.

“It’s a deal.”


End file.
